Evidence of climate change is being seen right now in indigenous communities in the Arctic. Some people outside of the Arctic assume that climate change would be a good thing for Arctic peoples, if it means that the weather will get warmer. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to be the case. Arctic peoples are well adapted to their environment, and to using the plants and animals that are adapted to the cold northern weather. As the weather gets warmer, people, plants and animals are becoming stressed.

Saami are seeing their reindeer grazing pastures change, Inuit are watching polar bears waste away because of a lack of sea ice, and peoples across the Arctic are reporting new species, particularly insects. Some communities are having to sand-bag their shorelines to try to slow down an increase in coastal erosion, while in others, buildings, pipes, and roads are slumping because the permafrost is thawing. Vital travel routes linking communities to each other and to harvesting sites are becoming dangerously unpredictable. Routes across the ice become dangerous when the ice thins, or thaws at times different from the past, and water routes can also become dangerous as water flows change.

LIVE EARTH CALL TO ACTION

Call on Viewers Across All 7 Continents to Commit to Bold Actions

New York City (June 28, 2007) – Live Earth Founder Kevin Wall joined with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Alliance for Climate Protection CEO Cathy Zoi today to announce the Live Earth Call to Action – a series of commitments that Live Earth will be asking people across the globe to make to combat the climate crisis. Wall also announced that there are going to be more than 6,000 satellite Live Earth events taking place in more than 100 nations around the world on July 7th in support of Live Earth.

In addition to providing over 100 simple actions people can take in their daily lives, which will have a tremendous positive impact when carried out on a mass scale, Live Earth will ask people to support a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 and a comprehensive international treaty on global warming by 2009.

“If we are going to solve this crisis, we have to commit, and we have to do it now. Live Earth will ask people across the world to commit to changes in their lives and to move other people, communities, companies and governments to reduce our carbon output by 90% by 2050 and ensure there’s a new, global treaty on climate change by 2009,” Gore said. “Nations all over the world are making progress in tackling the climate crisis. But too many proposals fall short of the strong, decisive action that’s needed. Individual nations alone cannot solve this crisis. The nations of the world must join together as one if we are to succeed.”

Live Earth will ask people to commit to making changes at home, at work, while getting around, while shopping, in their communities and to urge changes by their governments. Through its “Answer the Call” campaign, people can make their commitments and find solutions against the climate crisis at liveearth.org, LiveEarth.MSN.com, or by sending a free text message of “SOS” to 82004.

At Thursday’s announcement in New York City, Gore, Wall and Zoi all signed Live Earth’s 7-point pledge on the climate crisis:

To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;

To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral;”

To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;

To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;

To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;

To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,

To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

[UPDATE]The pledge can be signed here...well, what are you waiting for?

The names of people making commitments and signing the pledge through their computers or cell phones on July 7th will be shown on the Live Earth web site, on the screens at the concerts, and on the global TV broadcasts.

Wall noted that Live Earth and this pledge will reach a massive global audience through an unprecedented media architecture.

“Live Earth will jump-start an ongoing, global effort that will drive a critical mass of people to stand up and make challenging global warming a priority in their lives. Live Earth will be a launch event that no movement has ever seen before. Our message will reach all 7 continents with 8 official concerts, special broadcast events broadcast worldwide on TV, radio and the Internet. We’ve produced a collection of films, PSAs, and even an official Live Earth companion book. This massive multimedia platform will be the foundation for a movement that drives us to the tipping point,”

Wall said.

“If enough people come together to fight against the climate crisis, corporations and governments will have no choice but to act as well.”

Live Earth is being broadcast on television and radio in more than 100 countries. For example, in the US, Live Earth will be broadcast on the NBC network, the Spanish language Telemundo network, the Sundance Channel, Bravo, MSNBC, and Universal HD. In the UK, Live Earth will be carried by the BBC and in Japan, in an unprecedented step, both NHK and Fuji TV will carry the shows. The shows will be broadcast globally by MSN at LiveEarth.MSN.com. MSN reaches 465 million unique visitors a month in 21 different languages.

“The climate crisis requires a global solution. Live Earth is using an unprecedented media architecture to reach a global audience,”

Wall said.

In addition, Wall noted that Live Earth has produced more than 60 short films, 30 PSAs featuring stars like Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz, and a book – The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook by David de Rothschild that was released just this week – to serve as lasting media that will echo the Live Earth call to action delivered at the concerts on July 7.

Wall said that after the announcement of Live Earth, people and organizations all over the world asked to host their own events to support the cause, and the “Friends of Live Earth” program was created to support these efforts. The events range from small gatherings in homes to public screenings of the Live Earth concerts for thousands of people to multi-day festivals in places ranging from Portland, Oregon to Zurich to Malta, all to be held on July 7th. To date, more than 6,000 Friends of Live Earth events have been organized in 109 countries. Visit liveearth.org to participate in the Friends of Live Earth program.

“These 6,000 events are just the beginning,” Gore said.

“If just one person from each event holds one of their own, we’ve doubled our reach. We think many more people will answer the call and help us spread the message of Live Earth even farther on July 7th and for long afterward.”

The Alliance for Climate Protection, Al Gore.com, Avaaz, Defenders of Wildlife, ICLEI and the Sierra Club have joined with Live Earth to organize Friends of Live Earth events around the world. Evite is also encouraging its users to hold Live Earth viewing parties.

“Live Earth is just the beginning of a massive global movement. It will be the first great note in a worldwide song demanding change that will be heard on every continent in every time zone. And we will keep singing this song until meaningful actions are taken by our leaders to halt the climate crisis,” Zoi said. “Post Live Earth, The Alliance for Climate Protection is undertaking a 3-5 year campaign to educate people from all walks of life that the climate crisis is both critically urgent and something we can solve. We will take the momentum of Live Earth and continue to challenge people to take action in their own lives and demand action from their leaders — actions that must deliver reductions in global warming pollution that will safeguard the planet and provide for a prosperous 21st century.”

Prior to taking the helm at the Alliance, Zoi spent more than two decades in the energy and environmental sector in both the United States and Australia, including stints with environmental organizations, the New South Wales government, and the Clinton-Gore Administration. She was Group Executive Director at the Bayard Group in Sydney, Australia. Bayard is the world leader in smart metering systems with operations in 30 countries and revenues in excess of $1.2 billion.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Rail: Nice idea, shame about the reality (in the UK)

My grandparents are visiting soon. They live in Exeter (Devon, England) so we tried to book rail tickets for the 550 mile journey. This is what happened.

We are booking ahead of time so hopefully a reasonable fare will be avialable, also the date isnt important a few days either side of this date would be fine.

They also have rail cards so its cheap, right?

In fact the best price we could get around then was 229 pounds for there tickets one way! (thats about 450 dollars). In fact there where opitons without the two changes, but these got in to late...So where did we look next? Flybe...plane tickets booked then offset with My Climate.

Notice the lower price for flying, the lack of two changes (which is difficult for people in there 80's with lugage and the shorter travel time. At the moment in the UK it seems that having the most expensive rail in europe is putting well intentioned if not sadistic people off rail travel. Perhaps something that our new Prime Minister, Gordon Browne can have a look at.

In the Black: The Growth of the Low Carbon Economy

The latest publication from The Climate Group is now available for download.

The °Climate Group publishes this first edition of In The Black: TheGrowth of the Low Carbon Economy to showcase the rapid growthexperienced by companies providing innovative low carbon productsand services. Over the last year in particular, action on climate changethroughout the global economy has stepped up a gear. This is fuellingthe uptake of the technological solutions and the provision of relatedfinancial services.

As his royal highness Tony Blair evolves into Gordon Brown, we have an excellent opportunity to put climate change first and foremost in our new premiers mind.

The Campaign against Climate Change will be organising a Coronation stunt at 2pm at Trafalgar Square. They will be crowning Brown with the legacy of Blair’s inaction on Climate Change.

10 years of Labour, 10 years of stirring rhetoric about how the UK is leading the fight against climate change, and 10 years of rising CO2 emissions.

So don your finest robes, robes suitable for a coronation, polish your crowns and tiara’s, bring trumpets and bugles and meet us in the heart of London, to demand something different. A strong climate change bill that means something

Live Earth Update; Concerts + Related Events

The planning for live earth is well and truly under way, it's not long now and i`m excitied :-)

I`m not going to highlight all the ways in which the concerts are available but both XFM and MSN will be covering the entire series globally for the full 24hrs!

Undobutedly the concerts will be a superb spectacle, recent coverages suggests that they will also leave a green legacy at some of the venues. More interestingly, there are going to be 6000 sataliete live earth events around the world in more than 100 countries.

Also, the money raised from the events will go towards the Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization with a long term vision. Also, the live earth website and a supporting book are being published in order to give people effective tips on what they can do to reduce there emissions. Live earth is also working closely with Avaaz, an online action community, to promote personal and political engagement with climate change.

There are also a great series of videos about the topic, it`s the first time that i have seen so much creative energy going into this. There are some really great artists working on the SOS part of live earth, all the asociated media.

Ohh, its all so confusing, what can i do...

Nanatuk, a band of the British Antarctic Survey will be contributing live fron Anatarctica!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Fridges really do use a lot of energy!

Wow. I knew freezers used a lot of energy, but not that much!

As part of 'greening' the tea room we are replacing old refridgeration equipment. I have already ordered an new A+ rate fridge freezer to replace an old inneficient model with no rating and unknown provinence. Now i am looking at our two freezers that we use at home, these are mainly but not exclusively for the tearoom. What amazed me is that a new 'C' rated freezer that is as large as our old model uses 600KWh (estimated by manufacturer) a year. Bearing in mind our freezer is old, and like our fridge freezer has no rating it isn't unlikely that based on a similar method for estimation it might use >800 Kwh per year! Our energy use last quarter was around 950Kwh. Also, we have two freezers, the other is somewhat smaller. So it's quite possible that we use 800 + 400 = 1200Kwh a year for our freezers...we also have a home fridge.

So yes, keeping things cools seems to take a lot of energy even in Scotland. There have been a few purchases recently but hopefully a pair of new A+ rated freezers should make a dent in this problem. Each rated at 300KWh per year we could hope cut our freezer energy bill in half.

Two points on this:

These projected energy uses are far from great, when my Kill-A-Watt metre gets here i`ll do some day long checks but this all varies so much by the season that i`d need a whole year to do this as i`d like so i could have a good guide.

Getting rid of a freezer would be so much better than getting more efficient ones. I`m looking for a huge freezer as a compromise--for the same volume this would be lower on energy but i`m finding them very costly.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Cutting out the middleman, a superb concept, perhaps most brilliantly communicated by Douglas Adams in 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' is made possible in relation to climate change thanks to the blog of the "Indigenous Peoples at the Arctic Council".

Business attitudes to climate change are represented perhaps at there most progressive through the World Business Council on Sustainable Development. This ceo led organisation has produced several good reports on what business needs in order to support strong action on climate change. There will be winners and loosers in climate policy but for the main tranche of businesses a few core principles make redical emissions reductions possible if not easy. These include long term policy stability, international buy in from all major economies and an end to perverse subsidies.

Businesses at the forefront of corporate climate policy are still exploring what needs to be done. I personally find this interesting, and for climate change campaigners the views of these groups should be useful as many of the requests made for strong policy from govornment are the same as those made by NGO's.

Björn Stigson the president of WBCSD has just started a blog. A recent entry makes for intersting reading. A meeting at which business leaders where effectively flumoxed by the scale of the challenge, this is quite disconcerting but at least it shows an appreciation to some degree of the scale of this issue.

At the end of Bjorn's post he states that as a recent meeting was winding up one member of the audience summed up things as follows:

“The consensus seems to be that to lick climate change we are going to have to do everything, everywhere, for a very long time.”

My response to this was:

I almost agree with that.

I'd say, we can't lick climate change...we are already seeing the impacts now. We have 50 years more in the system from emissions already made, then we have the lag of the economic system to react. If we are going to avoid catastrophic climate change we are going to have to do everything, everywhere and we have a very short time to do it.

I don't know if you have seen the temperature vs co2 concentration papers and then connected this to emissions to stabilize at a given concentration but its pretty overwhelming. However, don't be overwhelmed business is the most dynamic part of society and a revolution in business is needed. Good luck!

Sustainable Biofuels: A Guest Post by Colin Forrest

Colin Forrest,Monday 25th June 07cdforrest[at]tiscali.co.uk

Everyone is rightly banging on about the destruction and havoc caused by mass monocultures of crops for biofuels for transport fuels. This is driven largely by fears of peak oil. Yes there are loads of alternative energy sources, but we are stumped for sufficient alternatives for liquid transport fuels, and that's what is worrying governments: demand reduction, energy efficiency, electrification of rail and trams, biodiesel and ethanol, that's about it. You can make oil out of coal but its costly.

Mainstream big business is desperately trying to find a way of keeping the wheels going round.

"Envoronmentalists should be equally concerned with articulating sustainable solutions which solve global warming, maintain current standards of living, and improve the environments, and biofuels, especially wood, can, in some situations, do all three."

Regarding biodiesel and bioethanol, yes the humanitarian and environmental damage from large monocultures of crops for oil seeds/ethanol is unjustifiable, but, on a smaller scale, as part of balanced sustainable agriculture, its not necessarily bad, and remember that the rest isn't wasted. The proteins, fibre and carbohydrates left over are used as animal food and fuel. Used wisely, these crops could be a part of the solution. Let's not throw the baby out along with the bath water.

Also, let's not forget that sustainably harvested wood is one of the most environmentally benign things you can actually do for the planet, and it is the most commonly used renewable energy on the planet by a long way (although not usually used sustainably at the moment).

Used to generate electricity, with the low grade heat energy "cascaded" and used locally to heat buildings, warm greenhouses etc, and with the CO2 captured and buried, it could save the planet. Seriously.

"It is one of the few technologies which could be carbon negative, i.e. using it could actually reduce atmospheric levels of CO2."

The average woodland in Scotland is taking 6 tons of carbon (net) out of the atmosphere every year, per hectare.

Deciduous trees are generally better for biodiversity, will do better in northern latitudes as the climate warms (lower respiration demands in winter), reflect more heat from the sun back into space (higher albedo) especially if the ground is covered with snow in the winter, and look prettier. Also most deciduous trees can be coppiced". If cut down at ground level, they regrow more rapidly than a newly planted seedling (because they still have a big root system) and CO2 emissions from soil disturbance at harvesting and replanting time are greatly reduced

Really, trees are amazing solar energy collectors, help the environment, don't require mining for minerals, use dodgy heavy metals or industrial processes, have minimal transport and environmental costs to install, and are incredibly cheap to install.

Finally, substituting wood for more energy intensive materials such as steel, brick and concrete achieves even greater carbon savings than using it as a biofuel. Truly a neglected part of the global warming solution.

-----

Thanks to Colin for this piece. If anyone else would like to contribute a guest post,relating to this or any other climate related topic then feel free to email me oncalvin.jones[at]gmail.com

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Number One Breamar Road: Climate Action Plan

My parents run a tearoom, it is a small business, but there a a large number of small businesses and cumulatively they have a significant impact.

I`m currently working on a plan to reduce the t-rooms environmental impact significantly.

It's a rather odd situation, if i wanted solar panels then i could probably have pushed for them and got them installed already but they would be providing only a small fraction of our energy needs. It's energy efficiency first and second, i`m looking forward to solar panels soon though!

I don't feel like sharing this plan at the moment as I have just started. Also, there is a real problem with data we have general electricity bills but we don't know where all the energy is going. In order to solve this problem I have just ordered a kill-a-watt metre so i can see where the energy is being consumed. You plug an appliance into the kill-a-watt and it into the wall, it give you KWh, watts, volts and cost of energy.

I also plan to by an Electrisave mains energy monitor that i can clip onto the mains cable it then transmits to a display panel that can be move around. I'll put thison the counter hopefully it will start some conversations!

The wisdom of spending some cash on finding out the details of energy usage, and having live monitoring was reinforced by this fascinating article on the oil drum.

The Electrisave monitor, in particular is --i think-- a great idea. One of the key parts that i seein this plan i`m writing is engaging with the customers. I cant see a better way to start than them asking what the electricity metre is doing on the counter!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

I live in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. I don't write enough about how climate change is effecting this area, and how it is likely to in the future.

I just came across a facinating podcast from the University of Leeds. In this audio program three farmers, each with over 50 years of experiance talk about there experiance of the chaning climate.

Three Scottish farmers lectured students at the University of Leeds this week about how they are already coping with the effects of climate change. But they didn't have to leave the comfort of their own homes because they were featured in a podcast.

Audio recordings of interviews with the farmers were made into a 20 minute documentary. The podcast then automatically downloads the recording to students’ computers and MP3 players.

Three Aberdeenshire farmers starred in the podcast. Eric Much is a livestock farmer, Alfie Gray used to keep livestock before he retired and now keeps bees, and Jimmy Rae was brought up on an arable farm and is now a local window cleaner, renting out his own arable land. They each had witnessed significant changes in the climate over the 50 years they had been working on the land.

Mark Reed, Lecturer at the University of Leeds said, " This is an invaluable opportunity for my students to learn first hand how our climate is already changing, and how people might be able to cope with these changes. I couldn’t get three farmers to travel to Leeds and even if I could, I’m sure they’d rather not tell their stories to a lecture theatre of 170 students. But podcasting technology enables these farmers to impart the knowledge without having to travel."

"Because of its location, often on the edge of the boundary where we see snow in this country, with temperatures oscillating around zero degrees Celsius on many winter days, the location of Aberdeenshire is unique. It can provide us with a fascinating window onto the future effects that climate change may have on temperate agriculture. In this area, just a small change in average winter temperatures can have a huge effect on agriculture, because it makes the difference between whether there is frost and snow or not."

Farmers explained to students how winter snow was commonly an average of 6 ft deep in the past, drifting up to 20 ft. One farmer even described having to climb out of his first floor window to dig a tunnel to his front door. By contrast, nowadays snow is rarely deep and when it does fall does not lie for long. The experience of these farmers is consistent with climate models that suggest Scottish winters will become warmer and wetter, with increased likelihood of winter flooding and summer drought. But the farmers were upbeat about how farmers would respond.

Jimmy Rae said, " Farmers have got to change. There’s no way out: they’ve got to keep up with the changing times. It was a thought going into bigger machinery, but the scarcity of labour forced them into it. The same thing is going to happen with changing crops. Its not going to work keeping going the way we are – its not going to be profitable. We’ve got to change."

Alfie Gray agreed: " I think I’m an optimist. Farmers have changed over the years and they’ll keep changing. They’ll change to suit themselves - they’ll make it alright."

The farmers seem to be quite pleased with climate change, infact if you look at maps the cool temperate areas are amongst those most positvely impacted by climate change in terms of agricultural productivity. The impact on local ecosystems is a quite different story.

Cyclist beware ! Innocent cyclist tasered!

Tasers are 'less-lethal' weapons. They aren't non-lethal for the simple reason that they have killed people, perticlarly those with weak hearts or pacemakers.

Certain groups where very concerned with there introduction as rather than being used as an alternative to guns (which would seem sensible) past experience with law enforcement leads to the conclusion that they will be abused.

But this blog isn't about civil rights. It's about climate change. Well, one way to reduce climate change is to ride a bike. In the UK this may at times give you a feeling of second class citizenship, but probably not a fear of tasers!

In the US, however, fear of tasers for cyclists would seem to be rational...

Friday, June 22, 2007

Earlier in the year the Global Climate Campaign started to build. At a meeting hosted by Campaign against Climate Change at London School of Economics speekers from around the world met to discus plans for the Dec 8th global day of action.

December 8th Global Climate Demo is endorsed by the Alternative Summit at the G8

Klaus Mielke of 'Germanwatch', speaking for the new German coalition on climate change - the "Klima-Allianz" - at the Climate Change plenary session, urged the audience to join the December 8th global climate demonstrations. The same message came from the "Climate Forum", organised by the BUND (German Friends of the Earth), the Global climate Campaign and Practical Action, a few days earlier. Finally at a workshop organised by the Global Climate Campaign and others activists began to make concrete plans to build for the demonstrations.

Meanwhile at the big Saturday demonstration, and others, thousands demonstrated for action on climate, while thousands of leaflets for the December 8th demos were given out. Germany and all Europe is now gearing up for mass action on climate on December 8th !

Assurance: What does it take to gain consumer trust on climate change?

Increasingly companies are realising the relavence of climate change to there businesses. In some cases there is a bottom line motive to saving energy, in other cases broader strategic advantages are seen, and it some cases it is just that being green is a bonus in PR and staff retention terms.

Do consumers trust the ever more frequent green calims coming there way, and if not what is required to build this trust?

To the first question the answer is an emphatic NO.

Business, governments and consumers in the US and UK are increasingly concerned about climate change. Fifty four percent of consumers are willing to make personal sacrifices to prevent global warming. But only 10% trust the guidance they receive from business and government on this issue.

The second question is investigated in a recent report by AccountAbility.

A wave of green initiatives to counter climate change will probably have limited impact because nine out of 10 consumers are sceptical about the information from companies and governments, according to a new survey out later this week.

More than 40% of consumers distrust what they hear about global warming from businesses while a further 50% do not know whether to believe corporate claims or not.

This contrasts with 60% who trust scientists and almost half who put the same faith in environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, according to the report from Consumers International and Accountability.

Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment includes data showing thatinvestments in renewable energy and energy efficiency industries set a new recordof more than $100 billion worth of transactions in 2006. In 2007, the upward trendcontinues, with capital investments occurring in sectors and regions previouslyconsidered too risky and too illiquid to merit the attentionof the institutional investment community.

Paris, 20 June 2007 - Climate change worries coupled with high oil prices and increasing government support top a set of drivers fueling soaring rates of investment in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, according to a trend analysis from the UN Environment Programme.

The report says investment capital flowing into renewable energy climbed from $80 billion in 2005 to a record $100 billion in 2006. As well, the renewable energy sector's growth "although still volatile ... is showing no sign of abating."

The report offers a host of reasons behind and insights into the world's newest gold rush, which saw investors pour $71 billion into companies and new sector opportunities in 2006, a 43% jump from 2005 (and up 158% over the last two years. The trend continues in 2007 with experts predicting investments of $85 billion this year).

In addition to the $71 billion, about $30 billion entered the sector in 2006 via mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and asset refinancing. This buy-out activity, rewarding the sector's pioneers, implies deeper, more liquid markets and is helping the sector shed its niche image, according to the report.

While renewable sources today produce about 2% of the world's energy, they now account for about 18% of world investment in power generation, with wind generation at the investment forefront. Solar and bio-fuel energy technologies grew even more quickly than wind, but from a smaller base.

Renewables now compete head-on with coal and gas in terms of new installed generating capacity and the portion of world energy produced from renewable sources is sure to rise substantially as the tens of billions of new investment dollars bear fruit.

Says UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner: "One of the new and fundamental messages of this report is that renewable energies are no longer subject to the vagaries of rising and falling oil prices-they are becoming generating systems of choice for increasing numbers of power companies, communities and countries irrespective of the costs of fossil fuels.

"The other key message is that this is no longer an industry solely dominated by developed country industries. Close to 10 per cent of investments are in China with around a fifth in total in the developing world. We will need many sustained steps towards the de-carbonizing of the global economy. It is clear that in respect to renewables those steps are getting underway."

Says Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change: "As governments prepare to launch begin a new round of post-2012 climate change-related negotiations later this year, the report clearly shows that, amid much discussion about the 'technologies of tomorrow,' the finance sector believes the existing technologies of today can and will 'decarbonize' the energy mix provided the right policies and incentives are in place at the international level."

The report represents "a strategic tool for understanding the energy sector's development in both OECD and developing countries," says Michael Liebreich, CEO of New Energy Finance Ltd, a leading provider of research and analysis on the clean energy and carbon markets, which prepared the report for UNEP's Paris-based Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative.

It credits as well the November 2006 U.S. mid-term elections, which confirmed renewable energy as "a mainstream issue," moving it up the political agenda.

Also spurring the sector's growth has been the persistently high price of oil - averaging more than $60 a barrel in 2006 (although one report conclusion is that the sector is becoming more independent of the price of oil).

"Growing consumer awareness of renewable energy and energy efficiency - and their longer term potential for cheaper energy, and not just greener energy - has become another fundamental driver," it says. "Most importantly governments and politicians are introducing legislation and support mechanisms to enable the sector's development."

Among the report's other key points and conclusions:

Renewable energy and efficiency markets are growing more global and enjoying easier access to capital markets;

Capital is coming from the venture investment community, the stock markets and internal refinancings, signaling the sector's a shift to a more mainstream status;

Risk and uncertainly can be reduced through diversification across technologies and geography;

Energy efficiency is a significant but largely invisible market, attracting increasing attention as investors realize its important role in meeting rising energy demand;

Capital investors are now more closely aligned with industry proponents in their views of expected growth.

Coal: It's the reason that peak oil dosent matter.

Peak oil is not simply the theory that oil production will peak at some time (that is a statement of fact with a finite resources), rather it is a belief that economically severe consequences will result.

Personally i dont see it, we have concervation, energy efficiency, fuel switching and smarter business between the problem and that predicted result. These options mean that i am not even slightly woried about peak oil.

I mentioned in a previous article that my biggest concern was an increase in carbon intensity as oil runs low. Coal to oil, tar sands and heavy crude are likely to become more significant.

In terms of global energy supplies coal would be encouraged, along with gas, unfortunately we have rather a lot more coal than gas!

These where concerns, today they are being reflected in events around the world. There is a whole lot of lobbying going on in Washington DC in favour of Coal to liquids technology. This would be disasterous...costly subsidies to entrenched power, ohh great. It is tellingthat in the US support for coal to liquids by presidential candidates of both parties is virtually unanimous! In China, much to the chargrin of us developed people living >10MtCo2 per capita per year (and often above 20) the are deciding that they want some of what we have, namely higher living standards and a lifestyle that our marketing people have established. In china rapid economic development is being powered by coal. A recent BBC report suggested two power stations a week being built. It's clearly a disastrous state of affairs, but until the developed world (so called) gets its own house in order and outlaws these technologies and takes climate change seriously rather than rhetorically we are in no position to change this.

Soy...this time for uk fishing fleet.

Soy, a crop grown in the tropics is a common vegan alternative to milk. It also tastes awful!

Besides being drank by a small number of vegans in this world it is also used to feed catle, make biodesil and now--potentially to help catch the worlds ever decreasing stock of fish (Details bellow).

Some of these uses are mind-bogglingly stupid. Biodesil in perticular, you just need so much soy and so much land, to make a small amount of desil. For other uses it makes more sense in my opinion. And before people criticise it as a drink, it must be realised that cattle that produce milk are often fed this and that the overall demand for land is far higher (cutting out the midleman--or cow--makes sense).

Anyway, here are a few photos of the expansion of Soy in Bolivia. Soy is the greatest cause of deforestation in Bolivia and is also a growing threat in Brazil and other tropical, forested nations.

In Bolivia (South America)...

Perticularly in the Santa Cruz Region, there is largescale deforestation, often in radial patterns...

Closer in we see that these small radially farmed sqaures dominate the landscape near Santa Cruz.

The EU and the UK government are financing a project to try and develop biofuels for the UK fishing fleet. The Sea Fish Industry Authority manage the project. The British company Regenatec want to import large quantities of Argentinean soya for biofuels for the fishing fleet. Soya expansion is the driving force behind the rapid destruction of Argentina's semi-arid Chaco forest and the humid Yungas forest. Tens of thousands of rural families have already lost their land to soya monocultures. Pesticide spraying from the air poisons communities, food crops, water and soils. As food production is displaced by soya, malnutrition rates are increasing. Soya monocultures are linked to high greenhouse gas emissions, both from deforestation and from the emission of nitrous oxide, which is nearly 300 times as powerful a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. Plans to use Argentinean soybean oil in the fishing fleet will further encourage the expansion of soy monocultures at the expense of ancient forests and local communities.

Climate Change is A Core Business Consideration

Climate change and business: approches and commitments.

There are several ways in which a business might talk about climate change: as if it is irrelavent, as if it is good for business (e.g wind power company), as if it is a significant business consideration (tactics?) or as if it is a significant long term opportunity/risk (strategy).

Listening to business leaders a few things come to my mind.

Energy efficiency is popular, with current energy prices, and wastefull proceses and practicies this is not suprising as there is money to be made and competative advantage to be had. The potential of a significant price of carbon in the future only adds to this. Consumer views (PR) and staff opinions (retention rates, motivation) play a significant further role in motivating action. All of this is great, but it is not dealing with climate change. These measures are by and large looking at an existing system and asking how can we do this better? That is a good and profitable thing to do with or without the potential devistation of our planet due to climate change that would make sense. It is incremental, it is sluggish, it just aint good enough. This approach could be summed up by the idea of out of town supermarkets installing energy efficient lighting in there car parks. Believe me, some of them actually boast about this! Some of us might question weather having vast tarmac carparks in locations remote from housing is a good planning move and weather the whole concept of out of town development needs to be looked at.

To me it would be fair to say that energy efficiency is key to the way that a business is run. It is not however, key to the direction in which the business is heading, it does not touch on what the business is about.

If business is going to get serious on climate change then the question cannot be only, how do we do what we are going better? Rather it has to be, how can we respond to the opportnities that climate change represents, live up to our responsibility and grow? Transformations may well be in order.

For some businesses this will be easy, for others it is more important because it is difficult. For example, GE and it's Ecomagination project is a superb example of a companny spending vast sums and getting into the forefront of the low carbon technology sector...that is easy and profitable. For others, such as supermarkets, it would be a huge challenge to change siting procedures. Would councils be willing to work with them to arrange cycle paths, foot paths; what about planning regulations near housing. Will people do shopping without a car? Perhaps partnerships with local cycling groups could be developed. How are supply chains shortened? Can with despense with recycled containers and instead use refillable containers? How would advertising work then? Carrying out carbon footprinting of foods it was found that air miles where a pretty poor indicator of carbon, its more difficult than that. A lot of the energy is in packaging, distribution withing the uk, refrigeration, initial farming etc. In fact it's difficult to make supermarket products dramatically low carbon (measurements do often lead to significant progress at first) but i imaginge (no figuers at hand) that some models of retail such as local farmers markets are already dramatically lower in carbon. No centralised distrubution centres, no packaging (perhaps a paper bag), little energy usage keeping the goods, genrally more central locations with public transport a distinct possibility.

Changing from our of town shooping centre to sustainable shopping centre is a big goal, a long term strategic goal that really would indicate climate change as a key business consideration.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Live Earth: Now That is a Fucking Amazingly Good Idea!

There has been a lot of cynicism about live earth.

So here are my thoughts:1. Its an amazingly good idea, really, just a brilliant event, and not before time!2. In the UK we have high awareness of Climate Change, this is also the case in parts of the US, but globally this is far from the case, therefore raising awareness is vital.3. They will try and make it low carbon; they will use offsets, good, offsets by well run companies are a sensible choice, they wont completely succeed.4. I really don't care if it isn't low carbon! That misses the point by such a margin...can people actually use that as an argument against? The effect of this event on billions of people, and in 'agenda setting' for politicians is much more important.5. Yes there will be private jets, yes we are living in a society that has developed in a carbon intensive manner but we need to force the government to enact policies to encourage low carbon and more efficient technologies, and enable social change...all of this is what the event is about we aren't going to ban concerts of any type because of climate change, come on get real.

So that was deffense. Now offence.

Stop putting on ridiculous 'counter concerts' if you are a 'deep green' orany sort of commit ed environmentalist then you should be at these concerts chatting topeople at a moment when they are uniquely likely to ask questions and join yourgroups...its a huge opportunity!

Shameless Self Promotion Part 2

A while back a couple of people asked me for an image so that they could link to Climate Change Action (CCA) from there own sites.

I was again asked for this image in just the past few days, here it is, and thanks to anyone who uses it! And please do check out Energy&Enviro Finland to see this in its first use...i`m just off to add some of my favourite newsletters to the sidebar.

Celsias, perhaps the best climate change blog on the web for non scientists, has an article on escelating corn prices. This issue, entirely predictible in its apperence is due to the rapid ramp up of corn ethanol production in the US. Other people writing about this include Noam Chomsky, Lester Brown...and my local paper the Press and Journal.'Food Prices on the Up & Up'.

Carbon Planet has an article about IT systems and the the inneficiencies they suffer from.Keith over at the Temas blog has a superb roundup of what cities are doing in the fight against climate change. The focus is perticularly on the C4o group, brought together by Bill Clinton, and the ICLEI initiative that has been going fo some years now. A very interesting post.

Bill Hewwit over at Climate Change (Foreign Policy Association) has an excitingly titled 'miscellany' post that covers a load of recent issues in the US, notably the bill before congress that would require a % of renewables for the whole nation. As usuall, loads of ammendments; lets include nuclear, and 'clean coal' etc..,

Over at the Climate Policy blog of the AMS there is a post about 'climate security' an emerging idea that has seen more and more coverage recently, perticularly following UK Foreign Secretary Margarett Beckett taking it to the security council for a debate.

Vital Trivia has an interview with Jonathon Porrit from the Hey litterary festival. Jonathon is a very interesting chatacher who is co-founder of the English Green Party, Chair of the Sustainable Development Comission and founder of Forum for the Future.

A discussion (mp3 Download) of Pennsylvania's electricity provision, reform and contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. Panelists will discuss the alternatives state laws allow, and the advances that have been made in wind and solar energy.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Corporate Climate Response: Day 3 Full Video + Program

Food Transport & Product Lifecycle

A New Approach to Food Transport

Chris Brown, Head of Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing, ASDA

Validity of Food Miles as an Indicator of Sustainable Development

The 2006 Defra commissioned report, co-authored by Paul Watkiss, underlined the impacts of food transport, but also highlighted the wider trade-offs and ambiguity in the food miles debate. It also suggested some potential policies to address the environmental impact of food transport. In this presentation Paul will summarise the report findings, thereaction and subsequent work in this area,and how policy initiatives and industry thinking has moved on as a result. Paul will also discuss why, despite the findings, the term food miles continues to be widely used?

The food producers of New Zealand are actively interested in environmental trends within the UK food industry. In response to the growing awareness of the impact of climate change New Zealand food producers are developing accurate lifecycle assessments for the production and transportation of their produce. In this presentation, live from Auckland, a New Zealand Producer will outline their response to this challenge.

Dave Pearce, Chief Winemaker, The New Zealand Wine Company (makers of Grove Mill and Sanctuary wines)

Food and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: What are the Impacts and What would a Less Greenhouse Gas Intensive Food Chain Look Like

Tara Garnett, Director, Food Climate Research Network

Product Life Cycle Case Study

Henry King, Senior Environmental Manager, Unilever UK

A Life Cycle Approach to Cider

Richard Heathcote, Sustainable Development Manager, Bulmers

The Food Miles Debate – Dump or Adopt?

While it is clearly insufficient to simplifying the environmental impact of food production, retail and consumption to a unit of length, the term food miles does have growing resonance. Should the industry adopt a flawed but communicable term rather than confuse consumers with the complexities of the issue?

How else can the industry calculate and communicate climate impact of individual products? Can the industry cater for the increasingly sophisticated consumer with growing demands for diverse, year-round products, grown organically and produced locally? Can they have their organic cake and eat it?

Founded in 1980 as one small store in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market is now the world's leading retailer of natural and organic foods, with 189 stores mostly in North America. Their company ethos is based on a commitment to sustainable agriculture.

Part of their mission statement reads – “We believe in a virtuous circle entwining the food chain, human beings and Mother Earth: each is reliant upon the others through a beautiful and delicate symbiosis”. In 2007 Whole Foods will open London’s largest food retail space. In this presentation Kathy Loftus will outline how Whole Foods Markets can maintain this ethos on a large and international scale.

Food retailers now recognize the brand value is tied to climate change action and are coming up with innovative ways to market their credentials to consumers. From labels on air freighted food to compostable packaging and biodegradable carrier bags, supermarkets are now catering to consumers who want to buy ethically. The next big challenge, of course, is carbon labelling which could take years to sort out as experts begin to try and measure the ‘embodied energy’ of individual products. In this session, we will look at how the race to be green is manifesting in new labelling and marketing techniques.

Chair: Caroline Drummond, Chief Executive, LEAF

Case Study: Looking Beyond the Label

Mike Barry, Head of CSR, Marks & Spencer

Carbon Labeling – Work in Progress

Anne-Marie Warris, Global Product Manager - Climate Change, LRQA

The Next Step - Carbon Labelling Debate

Is it possible to label individual products’ carbon footprints? How do you begin? After all the effort, will consumers really buy based on carbon calories?

Discussion with Expert Panel Is offsetting just a “get out of jail free card” - does it count?Impact of government standards on the offset industryHow can you be certain your offsets are removing GHGs from the atmosphere?What is additionality and do I need to worry about it?Why do offsetting costs vary so much across suppliers?Why can’t I offset with projects closer to home?What are the merits of different kinds of offsets?

Following the Energy Review, the Government published a consultation on a new emissions trading scheme - the Energy Performance Commitment - alongside other measures, to deliver 1.2MtC/year (4.4MtCO2/year) carbon savings by 2020 from around 5,000 large non-energy intensive business and public sector organisations. This presentation will provide an update on the policies aimed at addressing energy use emissions from these organisations.

Discussion with Expert Panel: The Emissions Trading DebateHow might this work? What lessons have been learnt from the EU ETS and voluntary trading schemes that can be employed in this future scheme? How can companies and organisations prepare? Is this legislative approach the best method to obtain the proposed emissions reductions?

Organisational Climate Response The recent DEFRA consultation has brought into focus the climate change response from organisations that are not responsible to shareholder or customers. Some such organisations are blazing a trail when it comes to forward thinking, innovative response to the challenges of climate change. In this part of the program we will examine how leading organisations are facing up to the issue.

Shrinking the Footprint : The Church Responds to Climate Change

Alexander Nicoll, MCIPR, Head of Internal Communications, The Archbishops' Council Church of England

For it's 50th year of programming the BBC's internationally renowned Natural History Unit are producing 'Saving Planet Earth'. Dealing both with the plight of individual species around the globe and discussing the threat of climate change this series will be broadcast at 7pm on BBC One for 10 consecutive evenings in the run up to Live Earth!

Attenborough, the UK's most trusted celebrity has only recently spoken of his increasing concern about climate change. This series, along with Live Earth, looks set to again turn up the heat on UK politicians to stop the rhetoric and start the action on climate change.

The BBC have for some time been very good about explaining climate change, including a very good micro-site; its good to see them stepping up there game.

The section where people can pledge to reduce there environmental impact is also very welcome, i perticularly like the 'Dosen't everybody Do that' option for reducing fuel consumption...normalising these behaviours is key to wider acceptence.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

From 29th to 31st of may business leaders, environmental advisors, management experts and a few bloggers attened the Corporate Climate Response conference in London (UK). There was an official blog of the event, it can be found here. I recorded all three days on my personal camcorder, hence the less than perfect sound. Having said that i think that there where many interesting developments to come out of the conference and i think this information is well worth sharing. This post give an outline of the events of day one along with full video coverage. The next two days will be posted shortly. All of my posts relating to the event so far can be found here.

The Business Case Behind Climate Change

Some companies are taking the lead in responding to climate change simply because it makes good business sense. Whether it’s saving money through energy efficiency and waste minimization or capitalizing on consumer appetite for low-carbon products, there is now a business imperative behind global warming initiatives. But how much do you have to spend to see a reasonable return? Marks and Spencer puts that figure at £200 million while Burts Potato Chips puts it at £36K. In this opening session, we will look at how four leading companies have discovered the bottom line benefits of early action.

Richard Gillies, Director of Store Development, Marks and Spencer

Jason Leonard, Head of Environment, Standard Chartered Bank

Dr. Chris Tuppen, Head of Sustainable Development and Corporate Accountability, BT

Jonty White, Director, Burts Potato Chips

Carbon Footprint and Supply Chain Management

Case Study: Driving Efficiencies down the Supply ChainDr. Chris Tuppen, Head of Sustainable Development and Corporate Accountability, BT

Assessing and monitoring your climate impact. Reducing carbon and saving on energy bills Determining the energy use of your product or services’ full life How much of the supply chain impact are you responsible for?What are the costs and business implications of taking life cycle responsibility?

Chair: Emily Farnworth, Leadership Group Manager, The Climate Group

Terence Ilott, Head of Business and Consumers,DEFRA

Euan Murray, Strategy Manager, The Carbon Trust

Francisco Ascui, Principal Consultant, EcoSecurities

Effective Business Response – the role of Management Systems

Carbon and Climate change – the current fad?

Global, regional and local factors influencing corporate strategy. Trusting governments to set the drivers?

Case Study: Sky Blues Go Green: The First Wind-Powered Football StadiumPete Bradshaw, Social Responsibility Manager, Manchester City Football Club

Discussion with Expert Panel:

What are the feasible and cost effective renewable options?Does it matter where your renewable energy comes from?Does it always cost more than non-renewable sources?Is there enough renewable energy to go round?How does renewable energy complement offsetting and emissions trading?How can you go 100% renewable, globally?How easy and cost effective is it to put solar panels on the roof and a windmill in the car park?What you need to know before purchasing or investing in renewable energy?

Discussion with Expert Panel:What are the most practical initiatives to reduce electricity consumption?How much energy can an organization hope to save?How can you cut energy use across various locations?What is the key to getting employees and other stakeholders to cut down?

Discussion with Expert Panel How can SMEs gain access to capital for climate change initiatives?How can you implement strategies without additional resources?What are some of the easy steps that cost nothing?When can one expect a return on investment?How can you encourage employees to get on board?

Chair: Erik Bichard, Director, National Centre for Business and Sustainability